Understanding the semantics of how the brain processes information is vital to learning a new language. There are various levels of meaning and it is just as necessary for an individual to know the cultural background, as it is to know the language. There may be similar words in two different languages but could have wildly different meanings under certain contexts.
For said reason above, learning vocabulary should be done in context. Learning with synonymy can be very helpful as the book advocates for learning through more than just simple memorization. As we have discussed in class it is important to give the word meaning (besides its actual meaning) to you so you can have a connection with it.
This idea of meaning is different, specifically in the realm of names. In a majority of the western world there is a given Christian name and a family name. Such a name system does not necessarily hold up in the rest of the world. Even if it does, the names may not necessarily mean the same exact thing. For example, for myself and majority of the people I know their first and last names do not mean anything. However, in a foreign language it is not uncommon for a name to have an actual meaning.
Lucky for me, meaning can be borrowed in many cases. Many words such as laptop or computer are borrowed from the English language and used in others. In Turkish the name for a mobile telephone is, you guessed it, mobil. Can make life much easier. However, morphology can complicate things as suffixes and prefixes are added to various words. I know the suffixes have given me a tremendous amount of trouble in Turkish since it seems that almost everything is added to the ended of the words. Makes words much more difficult to identify.
Though morphing is difficult, grouping words with suffixes and prefixes together can make learning them much easier. Kimirzi cicek means red flower and I grouped them together to help me understand the two. Makes it much easier to learn vocabulary for me.
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